


Leaves in the Fall

by Guardian_of_Hope



Category: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Power Rangers
Genre: F/F, F/M, Family, Friendship, M/M, Multi, Other, Threesome - F/M/M, Time trvael, Two Tommy Olivers, orb of doom, past emotional abuse, the rainbow brotherhood, time line changes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-17
Updated: 2014-07-29
Packaged: 2017-12-29 17:13:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 19,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1007987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Guardian_of_Hope/pseuds/Guardian_of_Hope
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tommy's Law: The more ordinary the day, the weirder my life becomes.</p><p> </p><p>An unknown villain decides to make some older Rangers' lives just that much more difficult by shoving them into a different dimension.  They are given a glimpse into what life would have been like if the Orb of Doom had never been activated.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Tommy's Law

**Author's Note:**

> This is a story using my Rainbow Brotherhood as Tommy's backstory. Things that seem different from canon are deliberate. As I said, this is a look at the world where the Orb never appeared. A world where Jason and the others did not know that there were other Rangers who could come help them and fought and lived accordingly. Tommy, Billy, Kat, Aisha, Rocky, and Adam were a part of that world until they failed to stop the Orb of Doom and forced changes to the timeline that changed their friends, families, and history.
> 
> This is a darker world than the Brotherhood 'verse that Tommy came from. Please note the pairings. I didn't list everything because there are a lot of relationships that get talked about but not shown, and I will mention others that are covered in later chapters.

_ _

_It was the dream again…  Rito had called the Tengas to attack the carnival and we had to split up.  I needed my best with me, but the Tengas were tough.  For a moment, I wished that I still had Kim, or even Jason and the others behind me.  I wouldn’t have doubted that we could handle a two-prong attack with them.  For a long moment, I hesitated.  “Let’s split up,” Aisha said._

_“Wait,” I said,_ **_I hadn’t said anything that day, what was going on_?** _“Billy, Kat, can you handle the Tengas?”_

_“No problem, Tom,” Billy replied._

_“Good,” I said.  “Rocky, Adam, Aisha, cover me.  I’ll get the Orb.” **This isn't what**_ **_happened_.** **  
**

Tommy gasped as he woke up, the choked, almost sob tearing out of him as the reminder of the day his world had been remade.  He was lying down on something, he twitched his hand to confirm it was metal.  Tommy sighed and thought hard about what could have happened to him.  He’d been,  he’d been on his way to Jungle Karma Pizza to meet the twins and Tori when there’d been that god-awful laugh that so many monsters seemed to possess.  It was close, too close, and he didn’t have his zeonizers because after Reefside, he didn’t want to run the risk of another Ranger hunt.  Then, the crackle of lightning, too close and too hot, before something slammed into his back, shoving him into what had appeared to be one of those Swirling Vortexes of Doom, then blackness and the dream had happened.  Again.

There was the scuff of a shoe against the floor.  Tommy stiffed for a moment, and then he forced himself to relax.  There was a very good way to tell if he was in friendly hands.  “I am not opening my eyes,” he announced clearly, quietly please he wasn’t slurring his words.  “I am not opening my eyes because if I open my eyes, I will have to admit that I fell through a portal while walking down the streets and have ended up Zordon knows where.  Damn my life sucks.”

“You might want to open your eyes, Tom,” a familiar voice said, there was an undercurrent of dark amusement.

Tommy opened his eyes and found Jason leaning over him with a decided smirk.  “Scott,” Tommy said.

“Lee Scott,” Jason said.

Tommy sat up, rubbing his head, “Where am I?”

“Where do you think?”  Jason asked.

Tommy looked around, “The,” he stopped, twisting to take in the entire room.  “The Command Center, but,” he turned to Jason, “I don’t understand, the Command Center was destroyed.”

Jason’s smirk disappeared, “Maybe where ever you came from it was, but not here.  Not for lacking of trying though.”

Tommy just stared, because it had been _years_ since he’d seen the Power Chamber, much less the Command Center.  Finally, he turned back to Jason, “Things have changed,” he said.  “A lot of things.  It is 2012, right?”

“Actually no, it’s 2008,” Jason said.  He glanced around, “The others are on their way, Tom.  I let them know after the scans came back.  By the way, when did you wear _Black?_ ”

“It was in 2004, in Reefside,” Tommy replied, distracted.  When Jason gave him a long look, Tommy glared back at him.  “I didn’t exactly have a choice, ok?  It was let the damn thing fall into the hands of _fucking_ Mesogog or use it myself and I would take it as a favor if you didn’t ride my ass for it Jason.  I got twice the amount of shit from everybody the _first_ time around.”

Tommy winced, because Jason didn’t really like it when he swore, and it would probably go double in the Power Chamber.  And wasn’t that a head-trip he wasn’t quite over yet.

Jason through his head back and laughed as half-forgotten beams of light filled the room.  Tommy scanned the colors coming in, one red, green and black, and two blues, yellows, and pinks.  After a moment, the light faded along with Jason’s laughter.  “What’s so funny?”

Tommy sucked air between his teeth, because it was Kim.  Not the pale imitation of Kim he’d admired from a far for so many years, but _his_ Kim.  The Kim who had fought and laughed with joyous abandoned, going hard so that they _could_ go home.  The girl, now woman, he’d called _beautiful_ because she _was,_ her spirit a glorious flame fanned by the winds of the war they had fought.

“I’m sorry, and you know, I get that you’re me from another dimension, but do you mind _not staring at my wife._ ”

Tommy wrenched his eyes away to see himself.  “Sorry,” he said, his voice scratchy.

“You ok there?”  Jason asked, “You look a little pale.”

Tommy coughed, “I’m fine.”  He risked a second glance at the petite brunette, “You remind me of a girl a once knew.”

“Did something happen to me?”  Kim asked, glancing at her Tommy, “Is that why you look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Tommy laughed, the cynical, bitter laugh that had been born twelve years ago.  “Trust me, somewhere in Canada, I’m fairly positive Kimberly Johansson nee Hart is either chasing bad guys or helping her kids with their homework.  You, on the other hand, remind me of Kim, the girl I called _beautiful_ and was going to marry as soon as we were out of high school.”

“What’s the difference?”  Jason asked.

Tommy stared at his friends, seeing all the differences and all the similarities.  “Have you ever heard of the Orb of Doom?”  He asked finally.

“That is an excellent question, Tommy.”

As a grief and fear tinged astonishment filled him, Tommy watched as a familiar and beloved face filled the half-noticed energy tube.  At the same time, only one thought filled his mind.  _I am going to kill Andros._   “Zordon,” he whispered.


	2. An Old New World

Tommy spun, grabbing Jason by the arm to balance himself as he almost fell off the bed, "Jason," he croaked, "tell me,  _did you defeat Dark Spector?"_

"Tom," Jason began.

Tommy shook his arm,  _"Did you defeat Dark Spector?"_

"We did," Jason said slowly. "A long time ago."

"Fuck him," Tommy spit out, slamming his other fist into the bio bed. "Fuck him sideways with Goldar's sword. I am going to rip every single hair out of his body one by one. I am going to  _kill_  that fucking bastard and rend him limb from limb."

"Who?" Trini asked.

"Why?" Zack demanded. Tommy glanced up at him suspiciously. "What? It's a logical question."

Tommy took a deep breath and looked back up at Zordon, "His name is Andros of KO-35, he's the Red Astro Ranger, and he killed Zordon after Zordon told him that the energy in his tube was the only thing that could end the Great War."

"He's still alive?" The other Tommy demanded. Tommy knew that expression, that emotion, he remembered being the one turning it on Adam when his friend had quietly told him the story behind Astronema's Invasion and Zordon's death. With Jason on the other side of the country going to school, Adam had volunteered to break the news in a cheap hotel room somewhere in Georgia. Tommy did not even care that he did not remember actually.

"Not for lack of trying," Tommy told him bitterly. "Between Tanya and Kat, they held me back the first time, and after that Jason blocked me until the only defense I could think of was mind control and it was too late for that one either."

"That is not important," Zordon said, "I am sure that I had good reason to command Andros of KO-35 to do as he did. What must be discussed now is how you came to find the portal you came through."

Tommy sighed, "Are you familiar with Ocean Bluff and the Jungle Fury Rangers?"

"Yes," Jason said, "they're currently active."

"Well, I live in Ocean Bluff, and amazingly, I managed to make it through the Ranger year without picking up another Ranger color." Tommy said, "For the most part, I just tried not to eat at JKP and obey the monster alerts. Today, however, I promised to meet Tori at JKP to pick up my kids."

"Kids?" Kim asked.

"Yes," Tommy said, and he couldn't keep from smiling, "I have two daughters. Tori is their baby-sitter slash bodyguard." He glanced up, "I don't know what the universe is like here, but my children figured out how to turn invisible at the age of two, that plus my status as a Ranger makes them worth a pretty penny in some circles."

"I'm familiar with the phenomena," Jason said.

"Anyways, I was heading to JKP when I heard a monster laughing. Something hit me and then I'm waking up on a bio-bed in a building that was destroyed thirteen years ago." Tommy shrugged, "I'm sorry I can't help much. I didn't get a good look at the portal itself, but what I recall seems like a standard Swirling Vortex of Doom."

"And you've had experience with swirling vortexes of doom?" Rocky asked.

"Almost as much experience as I have teaching science to teenagers," Tommy replied.

"No," other Tommy said, looking horrified.

"You can't be," Zack said, a smile growing on his face.

"Like I told Mesogog," Tommy replied, "sorry, can't help you. I'm just a high school science teacher." Besides other Tommy's horror, the rest of the team had expressions ranging from smug amusement to bright grins. Zordon's Rangers had always known how to enjoy a joke at their teammate's expense.

Rocky leaned over to Adam and stage whispered, "This is just like Christmas."

"You didn't actually say that," other Tommy said.

"I'd like to see you do better when you're strapped to a mad scientist's dentist chair with a quote unquote 'life force extractor' aimed at your head," Tommy said, "besides, I walked away with a net gain of three hundred dollars for doing it."

"A net gain?" Trini asked.

"I lost a couple hundred," Tommy shrugged, "you know, because I lost the pool on my next Ranger color." He caught the other Tommy's long look, "Hey, I got really good odds on Pink, ok? Besides, Jason lost three grand on Gold and Trini kicked his ass so hard he banned gambling period."

Seeing the other Rangers, it was almost enough to help Tommy get over the sight of Zordon, alive and well and watching over Earth as he had done for so long. It was more than just seeing beautiful Kim, it was that little hint of darkness in Jason's eyes even when he was laughing. It was the way Rocky was half hanging off Adam, like they were two seconds away from kissing each other and all they needed was a little incentive for it. Aisha was on Adam's other side, snuggled under his arm and he'd bet money that she had her hand in Adam's back pocket, the way Rocky obviously had his. Trini was leaning against Zack, which was different, but there was such a casual laziness in her posture that Tommy wasn't quite ready to question it. Kat and Billy were also standing close, not quite touching but almost leaning towards each other. For a moment, Tommy remembered Kat and the rat-faced heir she'd almost married, how there had been that silent connection between them that had convinced him to support Kat's decision. Between  _this_  Kat and Billy, the bond was almost visible.

After a moment, Tommy let himself study his other self. From the spiked hair style, Tommy was positive that his counterpoint had never been a schoolteacher and may or may not have been involved with Anton. He stood easily, comfortable in his skin and his surroundings in a way Tommy hadn't felt in over a decade.

"So, science teacher," the other Tommy said, "how did you get into that?"

"I graduated college with a bachelors in earth science and a minor in paleontology, not to mention getting my masters and PhD in earth science with an emphasis in paleontology," Tommy replied hesitantly. When Jason snorted, he muttered "there may or may not have been a time travel incident involved. Anyways, I needed a job to help me survive my masters and PhD programs and I landed an internship with Anton Mercer."

"You worked for Mercer?" Other Tommy demanded, "By all that's good, Tommy, didn't his plans for dino DNA not scream a warning to you?"

"I needed the money," Tommy retorted hotly. "Besides, we didn't start the DNA work at first. That wasn't until later. I'd found the dino gems, and I wanted to distract Anton from trying to harness them, the DNA project was a good distraction. It's not like I anticipated Anton experimenting on himself to create Mesogog, ok? I thought I was just going to be part of his archeological team while going to school. I probably would have done better with Hartford, even if Andrew's interests are more focused on relics over dinosaurs, but the money was better with Mercer."

"Enough," Zordon said. "You said the Command Center was destroyed thirteen years ago?"

Tommy forced himself to look at his mentor, "Yes, I did. Rito and Goldar took advantage of our distractions to get into the emergency tunnels and plant a bomb in 1996. We used the Power Chamber after that, although _fucking_  Divatox destroyed it two years later."

 _"Divatox?"_  Jason asked.

"I wasn't a Ranger then," Tommy replied, "forced retirement. Not that I didn't like being able to focus on my degree, but none of us were really happy about the was Dimitria of Inquiris handled the whole thing."

"Rangers," Zordon said, "there is much we need to learn, we need not allow ourselves to get side tracked."

"Zordon's right," Jason said. "Maybe it would be better if most of you waited for the report. Adam, Kim, I'd appreciate it if you two stayed."

"Right," Rocky said, looking at his watch, "I have a class in ten minutes."

The other Rangers muttered their own excuses and teleported out one at time until the other Tommy, Kim, and Adam waited.

"Tommy," Jason said.

"Wait," Tommy said, looking at his counterpart. "I'm not interested in your wife, Oliver. I still love the girl I called  _beautiful_ , but I mourned her as well. I never particularly cared for the pale reflection that lives now. I met and married a different girl, the mother of my children. She died a few years back and every day I mourn her. I'm not going to try to sweep Kim off her feet."

"Go," Kim said, pushing the other Tommy gently, "I'll be fine."

Tommy stared at his doppelgänger for a long moment before reluctantly teleporting away.


	3. The Frog Cometh

 

After a long moment of staring at each other, Tommy stood up, “So, where do we start?”

“The Command Center blew up?”  Jason said at almost the exact same time.

“We were a little distracted being turned back into teenagers,” Tommy said.  “It was a bad month.”

“You mentioned the Orb,” Adam said quietly.

“Master Vile showed up,” Tommy said bitterly, “and then unleashed the Orb.  Time turned back to nineteen eighty-eight and we rewrote the timeline instead of fixing it, lost Aisha and the Command Center, Billy retired and we started using the Zeo powers.  I think that qualifies as the worst month of my life post Green Ranger.”

“You _lost_ Aisha?”  Kim said.

Tommy closed his eyes against the up swelling pain.  After the Orb, what happened to Aisha had to be one of his greatest failures.  He had been so caught up in everything, from the Zords to training Kat, to trying to convince his parents he was fine, that he forgot to keep an eye on his team.  None of them had noticed Aisha was drowning until she didn’t come back up. “She chose to change her past and stayed in Africa, where she found the yellow crystal.  She sent someone else back in her place, Tanya, and she was a good Ranger, but she wasn’t Aisha.  Tanya told me she came because Aisha thought she had failed us as a Yellow, because she wasn’t Trini.  None of us noticed she was having trouble until she was gone.”

Adam crossed his arms and nodded, “It was a bad time, with Kim leaving and learning to use our ninja powers.”  He leaned over a bit and knocked Kim with his shoulder, she gave him an unsteady smile.

“Exactly,” Tommy said, trying to think of something he could say to the Pink Ranger to indicate that it wasn’t her fault, whatever had happened.

Suddenly, the alarms went off.

It was like yesterday had been their last mission, Tommy felt his heart begin to pound and he started to twist his wrist before remembering his Zeonizers were tucked in his sock drawer beside his defunct White Tiger and Black Dino Thunder morphers.

“Zordon,” Jason said, his voice deepening into his command voice, “What’s going on?”

“Another portal has opened,” Zordon announced, “with the same signature as the portal that Tommy came through.”

“Aye, aye, aye.”

Tommy glanced over to see an Alpha unit shuffle out from the back of the Command Center.  Tommy wondered what the little robot had been doing back there.

“We’ll check this out,” Jason said, gripping Tommy’s shoulder, “anything we should be aware of, Tom?”

Tommy bit his lip, “No, not unless Grumm decided to make a move.  The last team just dealt with their big bad, and we were discussing the next Ranger Reunion.  The only thing that seemed to be going on was the rather nuclear meltdown of Ronnie and Will’s marriage and we’ve been expecting that since before they even eloped.”  He paused, “Unless that murderous bastard decided to embrace super-villainy, we’ve been on the outs again.  After what that little silver shit said to Tony…”  He stopped, “No, nothing worth worrying about.”

“We’ll be back soon then,” Jason said, “Adam, let the Zeo team know the Ninjetti will handle this.”

Adam nodded as he fiddled with a small black device.  “Tom said they’re standing by.”

“Ninjetti,” Jason said, “Cougar.”

“The Gazelle,” Kim added.

Tommy got enough of a look to see almost familiar red and pink suits before Jason and Kim teleported out.

“So,” Tommy said, turning to Adam, “Ninjetti?”

“With Dark Spector coming into power, we needed back up,” Adam said, attention mostly focused on his little device.  “Zordon sent Jason’s team to this planet called Phaedos to get their powers reworked.  Surprised all of us when Billy and Kim came back with the kinkajou and the gazelle.”

“The kinkajou,” Tommy snorted, “seriously?”

“Yeah,” Adam said, glancing up, “Jason said they were told that the Ninjetti might have parallels to our Ninja powers, but there were also a number of differences.”  He tilted his head slightly, “Unfortunately, we’ve not had need for new powers, what with the Zeo crystal, and so I’m still the frog.”

“Don’t knock the frog,” Tommy retorted, “it’s probably one of the better animals for being underestimated.  I was kidnapped by evil villains and forced to take on new powers.  Adam, I mean you, I mean, the Adam I know, had been invited by a good spirit to help take down an accident of birth and rescue a ranger team.  That’s luck, healing, intermediary and metamorphoses all wrapped up in one trip.”

“The Rangers are coming back,” Zordon said, “I think you might be surprised Tommy.”

“That’s going to get confusing,” Adam commented.  “I mean, most of us call your counterpart Tom, but still.”

“If it helps with the confusion,” Tommy offered, “I’ve gotten good at responding to Doctor O, or just straight Doc.”

A rainbow of light heralded the arrival of the Ninjetti, and they brought with them a black clad figure.

“Who is that?”  Adam asked.

Zack grunted as he helped Jason lift the body.  “Unless you’ve got a twin,” he managed as they headed for the bio-bed.  Tommy moved out of the way, staring as an unconscious Adam was made comfortable on the bed.

“Me?”  Adam said, moving forward.

“You,” Jason replied, he glanced at Tommy, “Yours?”

“Maybe,” Tommy said, edging around the backside of the bio-bed.  He carefully shifted Adam’s arm and summoned his Zeonizers.  “I know how to find out.”

Ignoring his audience, Tommy pulled off the morpher from Adam’s wrist and flipped it over in his hand.  He hesitated, and then pressed his palm against the underside of the device.  For a long moment, nothing happened.  Then the morpher vibrated and a green light shot out, resolving itself into a holographic green square.

“What’s that?”  Jason asked.

“It took time for us to get the hang of hiding these,” Tommy said.  “We would take them off when wearing them would be too obvious.  After getting them mixed up one time too many, Zordon and Billy reworked them so that when we weren’t sure which of them were ours, we could do that and figure it out.  Billy recalibrated them a couple of years back while helping fix up some of the drained morphers so they have a fairly accurate bio-signature to read from.”

Tommy refastened the morpher and shook his head.  Adam was not one to wear his Zeonizers openly, he preferred the more subtle and iconic Black Ranger when he needed to put in an appearance.  There was only one place he would bring the Zeonizers, villain or no villain.  “He must have been on his way back from the Island.  He wouldn’t have been wearing them otherwise.”  He glanced up as Jason approached with a med-scanner, “How long do you think he’ll be out?”

“Well,” Jason said, “You were out for about five minutes, so he should be waking up pretty soon.”

“Right,” Tommy said and took a long step back.  “You guys might not want to hover.  We just finished Intergalactic Prank Week.”

His warning was not quite in time as Adam’s eyes popped open and he surged up, clocking Jason with a beautiful right cross.


	4. Time Line Shuffle

 

 

Tommy lunged forward, “Kermit, stop,” he snapped, gripping Adam’s arm.

Adam struggled for a moment before Tommy’s words cut throw him, and then he turned too stared at him.  “Doc, what’s going on?”

Tommy stared into Adam’s eyes, knowing his friend was remembering the night, and the bottle of whisky, and the thirty-seven code phrases they had developed just because they could.  Phrases, quotes, and names snickered over to the background of a James Bond marathon while trying to forget that Tony had left Blue Bay Harbor for a tiny island in the middle of nowhere.

“What do you remember?”  Tommy asked, not really wanting to go over the history of the Orb again.

Adam frowned for a moment, and then closed his eyes as he took a deep breath.  Tommy recognized the breathing pattern as the one that Adam used when Antonio called with the latest ‘Samurai update’, a pattern designed to help him stay calm in the face of ‘Emily got hurt, Mike almost became a Nighlok I don’t know what to feel’ situations.  “Swirling vortex of doom,” Adam said finally, opening his eyes again, still focusing entirely on Tommy.

Tommy gestured, “Alternate dimension.  I think we did the time stream shuffle.  If we did, it means that Tony and the Dino Teens will never let us live it down.”

Adam snorted and pulled his arm out of Tommy’s grasp, “Who did I punch anyways?”  He turned to look at the crowd, “Because I am sor…”

Tommy rested his hand on Adam’s shoulder as Adam stared at the patiently watching Zordon, squeezing enough to let his friend know that he was there.  “That’s,” Adam said.

“Yup.”  Tommy agreed.

“He’s,” Adam said.

“Yup,” Tommy said.

“How?”  Adam’s voice was faint and unsteady.

“Haven’t asked,” Tommy replied.

Jason cleared his throat, and Tommy stared at him for a moment, “Are we expecting any more guests, do you think?”

Tommy looked at Adam, frowning.  He remembered what it felt like for him, going through the Vortex, if Adam felt it.  “I felt like I was pushed,” he told his friend.  “Did you?”

“Yeah,” Adam said.  “It wasn’t just that I went through the vortex, I was pushed.  It opened right in front of me and I was pushed to make sure I got in.  Someone didn’t want me to escape.”

“Me either,” Tommy replied.  “Ok, so, _someone_ , that’s probably a minion, wanted the Frog out of the way because you remain the luckiest Ranger, you’d figure it out and stop him, no problem.”  It was an old technique, from the Mission We Don’t Talk About.  It was somewhat based on those old detective films, but it also was a way to establish some credentials between them.

“And you’re you,” Adam said, “the Legendary Ranger, the One Who Doesn’t Know When to Quit or Retire, the Good Doctor, Technicolor Tommy.  The one Ranger you don’t put near active power sources because he will find them and fuck your shit up in the process.”  It was also good for annoying each other.  Tommy knew that Adam drew it out for a reason though, not just to annoy him.  He was starting to get a feel for Adam’s thoughts and he knew Adam was experiencing the same thing for him.

“Someone got the two Rangers with a reputation for stopping evil plots out of the way,” Tommy said, ignoring some of the others.  “Someone, probably a _minion,_ was afraid we’d figure out what he’s up to.”  Adam knew what he meant; they did not even need the weird little Empathic connection between them for Adam to understand.  They both knew that there were Grumm and SPD minions on Earth, having slipped through the refugee process.  Alphabet Soup was just the tip of the iceberg.

“But he put us in a world with Rangers,” Adam pointed out, “if he can control a portal, he should control where we ended up.  What’s to stop a blue ranger from throwing together something to get us back?”  Tommy cursed mentally; he had gotten side tracked and forgot the point of the little exercise.

“Even if Billy can’t,” Tommy said, “then there are still our techs.  Between Cam, Hailey, and Tony, they have built different types of vortex manipulators.”  Of course, they had done it for the RPM group several times.  It was a given that Bridge had taken advantage of that tech during Thrax’s attack to get there and back.

“Doctor Who, but accurate enough,” Adam muttered.  “We’re too good at getting out of shit for the Rangers to hunt us to the exclusion of all else.”  True.  Painful, but true.  After the Mission, there had been a few other scrapes that Tommy was willing to bet that most of the Rangers did not know about.  He knew for a fact, however, that the Dino Teens would raise a fuss.  They would probably have Ethan ‘do the thing’ and bug Hailey to help them out, but that might not be enough.

“If someone wants the Rangers distracted they’ll pick someone,” Tommy trailed off, knowing whom _he_ would chose if he wanted the Rangers to look elsewhere.  From the way, Adam looked from him to the other Rangers and back, he knew what Tommy was thinking.

“That’s who I’d pick,” Adam said with a little nod.  There was a hint of sympathy in Adam’s thoughts.  Even with all the changes, Tommy knew he was still a sucker for saving her.

Tommy turned to Jason, “ _If_ someone else were to show up, there’s only one person.  It would not be our Jason.  He has the whole leader thing down, but after his dad got sick; he took a step back because he needed to take care of him.  Before you ask, his dad’s kids quote unquote couldn’t handle him declining from Alzheimer’s.”  From the look of pain that crossed Jason’s eyes, Tommy thought that this was one situation that had not altered all that much either.

“Not Zack,” Adam said, “he doesn’t get as involved with the ones who aren’t Black Rangers, what with his job.”  Zack shrugged, clearly not that bothered by the information.

“Not Billy, he doesn’t even live on Earth anymore.”  Tommy noticed that Billy also looked confused, and he wondered if, without the Orb, Billy would have needed to go to Aquitar to be healed.

“Then _who_?”  Jason demanded.

“Who else,” Tommy said as he met her eyes, “they’d grab Kim.”


	5. Life Happens

None of the alarms went off and Tommy chuckled, “That was anti-climatic.”

“You thought it would work?”  Adam asked.

“Always a chance,” Tommy pointed out, “it works for Ethan.”

“You honestly think they’ll pick _me?_ ”  Kim asked, sounding stunned.

“Oh they’d pick Kimmie,” Adam said with a slight snort.  Tommy glanced at him, remembering a conversation once about their friend and her new counterpart.  Adam had forgiven Kim, having come to understand the differences in the timeline, but he had never really been impressed with her.  In this world, it seemed that he was, like Tommy, was allowing some of his opinions of the Rangers to slip out.

“Kim Johansson is a pink,” Tommy shrugged, “and very much the Ranger’s Heart.  As the Elder Pink Ranger, she has a long history of being very much available for the other Pink Rangers, and their teams in general.  Her Senior, Vida, has a different style, so Kim remains active in their color more so than many others do.  Add to that, she is a well-known Olympian, and works for a SWAT team and people will really notice if she vanishes.  With it being summer, people will not really notice I am missing except for Tori and the girls.”

“People will notice,” Adam said, “but it won’t be a big media frenzy the way taking Kim would be.”

“Distractions,” Jason said, “what would someone be doing?”

“Whatever it is, we can’t solve it now,” Tommy said, “and the Samurai are doing their first duty turns up on the Fortress.  Tony knows the equipment like nobody’s business, he’ll keep them focused.”  He glanced around, “Are we going to have to hang around here?  Because as nice as it is to see the Command Center again, it’s going to get very boring, very fast.”

“We’d have to be careful,” Jason said, looking at the rest of his team, “but maybe Lightspeed could help.”

“I need to go,” Billy said, “Angela and I were about to begin an experiment when you summoned me.”

“Sorry man,” Jason said.

The other rangers nodded to Adam and vanished, leaving, again, Adam, Jason, and Kim.

…///…///…///…///…///…///…///…///…

Adam studied his counterpart; the other Adam met his eyes for a long moment before making his own pointed examination.  “So,” Adam said after a moment of silence, “do you run a dojo?”

“No,” the other Adam said slowly, “Rocky, Aisha and I are the senior teachers at the Wind Academy.”

“You went back?”  Adam asked, “ _Aisha_ came back?”

“Aisha never left,” the other Adam said.

“Right, the Orb never happened,” Adam said, “Sorry, that’s a little hard to get my head around.  What happened to Tanya then?”  He vaguely noticed that Tommy looked up at his question.

“Who is Tanya?”  The other Adam asked.

Adam raised his eyebrows, “Tanya Sloan-Park,” he said quietly, “Yellow Zeo Ranger and my wife.”

The alerts went off.

“Zordon?”  Jason asked as Adam tried to get his heart rate to steady.  He had not heard that noise in over a decade and it still made him ready to leap into battle.

“Another portal,” Zordon said.

“Right,” Jason said, he turned to Kim and the other Adam, “Let’s go.  If we need back up, Zordon can call the others.”

“Right,” the other Adam said while Kim just nodded.

“Ninjetti,” Jason said, “the Cougar.”

“The Gazelle,” Kim said.

“Zeo Ranger Four, Green,” the other Adam said.

The three disappeared into their respective teleportation signatures.

Adam studied Tommy for a moment before looking up at the wizard who had been such an important part of his life.  “Hello Zordon,” he said carefully.

“Hello Adam,” Zordon replied.

Adam cleared his throat, “I don’t know what to say, exactly.”

“That’s all right,” Zordon said.  “I am sure there will be more opportunities to ask what you want to know.”

Adam nodded, “All right.”

There was a soft sound of static and the three Rangers returned with another person.  “It’s Kim all right,” Jason said.

Adam and Tommy moved so that they could put Kim on the bio-bed.  “This is way too familiar,” Tommy muttered.

Adam grinned at him, “Just like old times, yeah?”

“For certain definitions of old times,” Tommy said, he looked away.

Adam followed his gaze to where the other Kim was scanning their Kim with a medical device.

“Hey, Adam?”

Adam looked at the other Adam, “What’s up?”  He asked.

“You said you married a girl named Tanya?”  Other Adam said hesitantly.

“I did,” Adam nodded.  He noticed Tommy heading for Jason, but ignored them.  “We didn’t actually marry until a few years back, but we have children and have lived together for a while.”

“What happened to Rocky?”  Other Adam asked.  “Did you two break up?”

Adam closed his eyes, throat tightening in protest of the memories that sprang to life.  He could feel Tommy’s tension through the bond and forced himself to submerge the pain again.  “For us to ‘break up’,” he said aloud, “We would have to have been dating in the first place.  Since we never got together in _either_ timeline, it was very easy for him to leave for Javor when he graduated.”  _We both said and did things we regret.  We might have presented our friendship as strong and normal afterwards, but we have never really forgiven or forgotten.  He will not forget and I will not forgive._

“I’m sorry,” other Adam said, “Rocky and I, we’re together and depending on whom you ask Aisha’s ours as well.”

“Aisha,” Adam shook his head, “yeah, I can actually see that.  Although she probably would hurt you for calling her yours, if memory serves me.”

Other Adam laughed, “Man, that’s not how it works with us.  We are Aisha’s men, always have been.  It is just that now she sometimes lets us call her ours.  The kids are happy with that.”

Adam considered his options for a moment, and then reached for his wallet, “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”

Other Adam chuckled as he pulled out his own wallet, “Deal.”

They situated themselves against the back of one of the control panels and Adam flipped his wallet open to his oldest, “This is Antonio,” he said, “Tanya and I adopted him.  He was a student at my dojo before his dad nearly killed him.  He is the reason Tanya and I got married.  We had been together for years, but they preferred a married couple.”

“Is he a good kid?”  Other Adam asked, leaning over.

“Gold Ranger,” Adam said, “and currently active.  I am so glad Mom and Dad didn’t know I was a Ranger when I was active, given the number of grey hairs Tony’s given me.”

Other Adam chuckled, “It’s bad enough when it’s a kid you trained going out there.”  He offered a picture of two younger kids, “Hanna and Hunter, our bi-paternal fraternal twins.”

“Your what?” Adam asked, leaning in for a closer look.

“Hanna is my daughter, and Hunter is Rocky’s son, but they’re twins,” other Adam explained.

Adam nodded, “I can see the resemblance a little.  How old are they?”

“They just turned six,” other Adam replied, “and they are color crazy.  Everything’s rainbows with them.”

Adam chuckled and flipped a picture, “This is Paul, and he’s twelve.  He is the quiet one.  He says he wants to be a doctor, but last year, he wanted to be a writer, and when he was five he wanted to be a duck, so I’m not holding my breath.”

Other Adam nodded as he pulled out another picture, “This is Mina, our baby.”

Adam bit his lip for a moment, “She’s precious,” he said.

“She’s spoiled,” other Adam replied, “and nothing we say will stop it.”

Adam chuckled and flipped to a new picture, “I know the feeling.  This is Nina.”

“She looks like who Mina will grow into,” Adam said quietly.

“Well,” Adam said, “there are always similarities.  Nina’s ten, and she’s trying to be twenty.”

“How do you handle that?”  Other Adam asked.

“Tanya and I laid down the law,” Adam said, “We let her get her ears pierced for her birthday, but nothing else, and if she breaks the rules before we say she can, well, she’ll face the consequences.”

He flipped the pictures again, “This is our youngest, Julian.  He’s six; he’ll be seven in December.”

“A Christmas baby?”  Other Adam asked.

“A Christmas miracle,” Adam replied.  “He was premature and we almost lost him.  The family calls him Jinx.”

“Why Jinx?”  Other Adam asked.

“Because there’s something about Jinx and Tony being in the same room.  Tony has been training in the martial arts since he was eight.  He is a Water Ninja and he spent six months training with Cam Watanabe’s Samurai Master Grandfather to learn some very ancient sword techniques.  As I said, he is the Gold Samurai Ranger and is an excellent sixth ranger.  However, put him and Jinx in the same room and Tony cannot walk three steps without tripping over air.  So Julian is Antonio’s Jinx.”  Adam smiled to himself as he took out a picture of Tanya, “This is Tanya.”

“She is beautiful,” other Adam said, almost grudgingly.

“She’s sassy,” Adam replied, starting to put the pictures away.  “She’s a radio personality on KWIND and in her spare time she makes sure that Zordon’s Rangers have their heads on straight.  Trini might be a psychologist, but Tanya’s the one that gets Tommy to let go.”

“How does she do that?”  Jason asked, catching their attention.  “Sorry, just couldn’t help over hearing.”

“Tanya’s just easy to talk to,” Tommy said, looking uncomfortable.

“There’s that,” Adam agreed, “but there’s also the, how many is it now, Doc?  Six, or is it seven, colonoscopies she’s talked someone into performing.”

“Six,” Tommy muttered.

“Colonoscopies?”  Kim asked as she moved away from the bio-bed.

“Tanya has been conspiring with Doctor Dana for years,” Adam said, “to ensure that we’re all healthy.  She says that frequent colonoscopies and prostate exams are important, because the amount of bull shit that someone like Tommy has just _cannot_ be healthy.”

Their laughter was dying away when a groan filled the air, “Ugh, did anyone get the number for that bus?”

Kimberly Johansson was awake.


	6. Double Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, just for reference, Kimberly is the traveler, Kim lives in the timeline. Adam is the traveler, other Adam lives in the timeline, Tommy is the traveler, Tom lives in the timeline. Adam is also referred to as Kermit and Tommy is also referred to as Doc. I should have mentioned this before (and I apologize) but there will be a chapter that will contain flashbacks of emotional abuse. I will warn on the chapter itself, but I figured an early warning wouldn't go amiss. Other than that, Enjoy!

 

Adam watched as Kimberly sat up, “How hard did I hit my head?”  She asked, rubbing her temple, “I think I’m seeing double.”

“No, you’re not,” Adam said, and blinked as he realized that the other Adam had said it at the same time.

“That’s not convincing,” Kimberly said.

“What do you remember?”  Tommy asked.

Kimberly tilted her head, mouth moving as she clearly tried to remember.  Then Kim stepped closer and Kimberly turned to look at her, _“Dammit_ ,” she said, “did I switch bodies again?”  Then she paused, “For the record, I have a closet full of clothes in my size, you didn’t need to shop…”

“ _Kimberly,”_ Tommy snapped, “no, you aren’t experiencing a body swap.  We’re in an alternate dimension.”

“Oh,” Kimberly said, still eyeing her double dubiously.

Kim smiled and tilted her head a little, “I was doing yard work, by the way.  Yes, as a matter of fact, I do pick up yard work clothes from charity shops and second hand stores.”

“Sorry,” Kimberly said, she tilted her head a little, “Is that working for you?  Rebecca keeps stealing all my old clothes for dress up, so I have nothing for yard work and gardening.”

“Works for me,” Kim said, “I usually donate the stuff the girls don’t use.”

 _“Girls,”_ Kimberly said.

“Uh, Kim,” Tommy said, touching Kimberly’s shoulder, “This is Kim Oliver.”

“You married _Tommy?”_  Kim said.

“Hey,” Kim and Tommy said in unison.

Jason chuckled, “I can see the differences you mentioned man,” he clapped Tommy’s shoulder.

“Indeed,” Zordon said as he returned to the room.  “However, you should update your teammates on our newest arrivals.  As Tommy has stated, the Command Center is not the ideal place for continued habitation.”

 _“Zordon,”_ Kimberly said, scrambling off the bed, “but,” she turned to Tommy and then back to Zordon.

“Things went a little differently in this timeline,” Tommy said as he put his hand on Kimberly’s shoulder blade.

Adam snorted, “I saw the sarcasm coming,” he said when everyone looked at him; “I didn’t realize you’d picked up a knack for understatement too.”

Tommy grinned at him, “I’m just full of surprises.”

“Can we get back to Zordon not being dead please?”  Kimberly said.

“It’s simple,” Tommy said, “that murderous bastard wasn’t around to kill him.”

“Oh Tommy,” Kimberly said.

“No,” Tommy said, “not just no, but _hell no._   You do not get to judge me, Kimberly Johansson.  You do not get to judge my relationship with Zordon.  I am not your White Ranger, Johansson; _he_ had a safety net he did not need.  It’s time you faced a few facts about the Orb of Doom.”

“That happened years ago,” Kimberly said.

“Yeah, and around it here, it never happened at all,” Tommy said.  “The timeline _changed_ Kim.  Did you even think to ask what was different?  I know you noticed that we were different, I have a bad memory, but I’m not deaf.”

“What do you mean?”  Kimberly asked, looking nervous.

“How did it go?”  Tommy pretended to think, “Oh yes.  _‘Hey Jase, isn’t Tommy acting a little weird?  I know you said that robot guy’s brainwashing was broken, but are you sure?’”_

“That’s enough,” Jason said as he gripped Tommy’s shoulder, “I can understand you’ve probably sat on this for a while, but this isn’t going to get us anywhere with getting you back.  I was thinking we could probably talk to Lightspeed, at least to see about temporary accommodations.”  He looked at each of them for a moment, “You are familiar with Lightspeed Rescue, I presume?”

“Yeah,” Tommy said, “did some work with them before the team activated.”

“I helped with their training programs,” Adam offered.

Kim shrugged, “I’ve worked with Dana a few times, and I’ve been helping settle some people up in my area, but I’m not really affiliated with them.”

“Will we need to call Carter or something?”  Tommy asked.

“Not to get on base,” Jason replied, “I’m part of Project Rainbow, the official name for Ranger Assistance and Identity Reinforcement.  If I code in for a Rainbow issue, we’ll be able to drive on base without a problem and Colonel Mitchell and Grayson can help us from there.”

“Do you not like Carter or something?”  Kimberly asked.

“I’m not entirely certain how to deal with someone who told the third grade that his cousin Richard was Dick Grayson from Batman and Robin, a story which _continues_ to come up when he runs into old friends.”  Jason replied.

“And for that, I will bend the drinking rules,” Tommy said.  Adam thought he looked like Christmas had come early.  It had always been hard to find something to tease the Red Ranger firefighter about without him taking it the wrong way.

“Drinking rules?”  The other Adam murmured.

“We aren’t supposed to get drunk on Earth,” Adam replied, “especially not after the Moon debacle and Conner and Nick’s road trip.”

Kimberly chuckled, “Thanks for reminding me, Adam.”  She reached over and smacked Tommy on the shoulder, then turned to Jason.

“Moon debacle?”  Jason asked.

“The all-Red Rangers trip to the moon to blow up Serpentera back in 2003,” Adam offered.  “The Machine Empire was involved too.”

“We took care of Serpentera years ago,” Jason said, “we blew it to kingdom come during the war actually.  Cost us the Dragonzord and the Shogun Zords, but we managed it.”

“Then I don’t have to hit you on behalf of my Pink, Yellow, and White sisters,” Kimberly said happily.

“What about Tori and Madison?”  Adam asked.

“Tori decked all of them during the week of your wedding,” Kimberly replied, “She said she’d gotten her licks in then.  Madison doesn’t really approve, so she said to count her out.”

“Right,” Adam said.

“Let’s get going,” Jason said.  “We’ll teleport to my house and head in from there.”  He paused, and then shrugged, “Trini and Zack are taking the kids to the water park, so no one will see us come in.”

“All right,” Tommy said, he glanced at Adam and Kimberly before turning back to Jason, “Ready when you are, man.”

“Good luck Rangers,” Zordon said as the oddly quiet Alpha sent them away.


	7. Departure

 

Jason’s house was in Mariner Bay, a rather sprawling three story, contemporary structure with a pool in the back yard.  There were no neighbors visible from behind the privacy fence either, so Adam felt himself relax as he understood why Jason was so casual about teleportation.

"That's a big house."  Tommy commented.

"Three adults, six kids, it gets kind of tight."  Jason replied, "The garage is this way."

"Three adults?"  Adam asked.

"Six kids?"  Kimberly asked.

"Nine."  Tommy muttered.  When everyone stared at him, he turned to Jason, "I never pictured you for a minivan driver."

“It was a compromise,” Jason replied, “Zack was arguing for a short bus.”

“Why would Zack have input on your automobile choices?”  Kimberly asked as they entered the garage.

Jason looked at her for a moment, “Because, despite the fact that we live in different places, Zack, Trini and I are lovers?  We’re raising children together too.”

“You said six kids,” Adam commented as he put his hand on Kimberly’s back and steered her through the garage to the silvery blue minivan.  She seemed a bit shocked at the idea of Jason having more than one lover.

“Zack adopted Tierra and Gaia a few years back,” Jason said, “he and Trini also have a son named Brent that Trini is raising, while I have Jamie and Blake.  The kids live together during the summer with whoever has the easiest schedule and we take the last week of June and the first week of July for a family vacation all together.”  They climbed into the van and Jason sighed, “The logistics aren’t easy, but unless one of us chooses to retire we’ll live this way.”

“What do Trini and Zack do then?”  Kimberly asked.

“Zack works for Interpol,” Jason said, as he drove the van out of the garage and down the street.  “He’s currently living in Prague, but he’s supposed to be up for a promotion so he might move.  Trini works in Virginia as a child psychologist.  She does work with the state police in child abuse cases a lot.”

 “Zack’s a CIA agent,” Tommy offered, “he married Angela from high school in 2008 and his daughter Olivia was born in 2009.  He is the CIA liaison to Lightspeed now.  Trini had a private practice in Angel Grove until you became a US Representative.  You are campaigning for a Senate term now, with an eye towards the Presidency in 2016.  You are also a lawyer.”

Adam looked out the window, curious, as they took the winding road down into the city.  Jason had found, or built, a house in the hills that surrounded Mariner Bay, with a fantastic view of the city and the ocean, and the nearest neighbors were further down the mountain.  Adam eyed the construction a site for a moment, wondering how fast it would take them to build up to Jason’s secluded home.

“WHAT?”  Jason said, screeching to a halt just short of a stop sign.

“You’re a politician,” Tommy said gleefully, “a Democrat, of course, but still a politician.”

“What did you let me do to myself?”  Jason demanded.

“Actually, we did try to talk you out of it,” Adam offered.  “You wouldn’t listen to us though.  If Trini knows why, she isn’t talking, but Tanya doesn’t know at all.  She was so  _mad_  that day, because Trini told her that she couldn’t do any of her usual techniques to find out.”

Kimberly cleared her throat, “Actually, it has to do with SPD.  And there’s a car coming up behind us.”

“Right, driving,” Jason muttered as he turned onto the other street.  “What’s SPD?”

“You’ve never,” Tommy asked.

Adam stared from Jason to the other Adam, who also shook his head in confusion.  “SPD is a space based police department called Space Patrol Delta,” Kimberly said.  “When you look at them on paper, they sound like a good thing.  They have special morphers that enhance the users but do  _not_  make them Rangers and they provide planetary defense and police services to planets that don’t have Rangers.”

“In practice,” Tommy said bitterly, “they’re benevolently evil.  There’s this person, a Troobian named Grumm.  He was a warlord, but now he’s an Emperor, and he wants the universe to be a Troobian Empire.  Right after the Orb went down, Grumm took down the original creators of SPD, the Syrians.  Then he put a minion in SPD that has twisted their policies and practices.”

“In the past ten years, SPD has indirectly caused the destruction of so many young Ranger teams,” Adam said.  “There’s one girl on Earth, she works at the dojo right now, and she was a Black Ranger on a new team before SPD showed up.  Her home planet, they didn’t realize that there can be collateral damage in a Ranger fight, and SPD claimed they could minimize the damage with training.  The Rangers refused to join SPD; they’d heard the rumors of course.  Then the government got involved.  Since they were a hidden identity team, the government took steps to force their identity.  The Rangers eventually realized that they’d have to join SPD, so they took the third option.” 

“The last time SPD got their hands on old morphers, like our Power Coins, or the Eltarean morphers, they accidently, or ‘accidentally’ destroyed the morphers while experimenting with them.  The Ranger team in question had something akin to the Zeo Crystal that channeled power to their morphers, and they weren’t about to risk that to SPD.  The girl who works for me, Kassimia, she took the power channel and fled the planet.  She’s the only person who knows where the power channel is now, but it’s safe from SPD.”  Tommy said.

“If you think Kas’s reaction was over the top,” Adam said, “she checked up on her old team a month or two back.  Their Blue Ranger is dead in a training accident that left their Pink insane, their Yellow in a coma, and their Red so completely mind wiped that he didn’t even recognize her.  Eltare had to step in to keep them from branding her a criminal.”


	8. Lightspeed

 

The rest of the trip was made in silence as they all stared out the windows.  Kimberly tried to keep from staring at her alter-verse self, wondering what had prompted the woman to marry Tommy.  Not that Tommy was a bad person, in fact, he was often rather sweet in a puppy dog sort of way, but Kimberly had never really expected the two of them to last long past high school.  Not with her Olympic dreams, and Tommy’s wish for a quiet life in some small town, at least.

Adam sneezed, and Kimberly glanced over at quiet, black ranger quickly before focusing her eyes outside the window.  Tommy had said something about an orb, and the only thing Kimberly could think of was the Orb of Doom, unleashed by Master Vile months after she had gone to Florida.

Tommy and Billy had both written her about the Orb, Kimberly could remember.  The letters had been odd, something in the tone hadn’t been right.  Then Bianca had gotten hurt and Kimberly had been moved from alternate to the actual team, and thoughts about the Orb and her friends’ weird letter had been put to the back of her mind in favor of training.

That was when she had met Brian, another gymnast, and suddenly, any moment she wasn’t training was spent talking with Brian.  He had been so sweet and earnest, and without the load of guilt that hung about Tommy like an albatross.  It had been so easy to write the letter to Tommy, letting him down as best she could before mailing it in the next mail call.

It wasn’t until she suddenly found herself with a two-week break to heal from a sprained ankle and nothing to do that Kimberly realized she hadn’t heard anything from her friends.  Jason had called and invited her to come out to Angel Grove while she healed, and Kimberly had convinced Schmidt to let her spend a little time with her friends.

There had been something so strange about Tommy, not just Tommy, but Adam and Kat had seemed different, and she hadn’t known Tanya or Justin at all.  With this latest round of mind control, Kimberly had been worried about Tommy, everyone who spent time with Tommy and counted him a friend knew that Tommy had a habit of brooding and feeling guilt whenever he was reminded of his past.

This time, Tommy had been so different.  He was more relaxed in some ways.  He had joked with her and Jason, but there had been an odd stiffness to his mannerism, as if he was trying to act like someone he’d only heard of before.  It wasn’t until Adam had called him to help land the Megazord back at the Power Chamber that Tommy had loosened up.

After that had been the Olympics, college, Charlie, the children, and the SWAT team, and in thirteen years, Kimberly had only been to the reunions a handful of times.  It seemed like every time she went, things were different.  There was a distance between Tommy and the others, except for Adam, and even then, they always seemed to carefully keep their distance from each other.

Kimberly could freely admit that she was happy that Tommy and Sam had found each other.  She had met Sam three times before the woman had passed away, and it was clear that she had adored Tommy as much as Tommy had loved her, and his daughters had all the best features of their parents.

Suddenly, Kimberly realized that she had been watching a chain link fence go past her window for a while, and beyond it was a two-story building that had the odd uniformity of a military building, beyond that was the ocean, close enough to hear the windows had been down.  “That’s Lightspeed’s ground base,” Jason said, “don’t say anything ok?  The guards know better than to gossip, but we prefer not to make it hard for them to keep their mouths shut.”

He swung the van into the driveway and Kimberly wondered how often he’d brought this large van to work.  Kimberly could admit to being startled when Jason had so casually commented on being in a relationship with Trini and Zack, but now that she’d had time to let it sink in, she could see it was plausible.  There had been a _lot_ of teasing when they were teens after Zack had kissed Jason as a joke, but there had been something missing.  Just as it always made her stop for a moment when she remembered that, Jason and Trini were married.

Zack had been Jason’s closest friend for years before Kimberly had moved to Angel Grove, and while Trini and Billy had been as close as siblings, there was something to the dynamic of Jason, Zack, and Trini that had been indefinable.  It was something about the way energy hummed between the three of them on the rare days when they sparred as a group.

“Good afternoon sir,” the guard said, jolting Kimberly out of her thoughts again.

“Afternoon Corporal,” Jason replied easily, “Any news from the base?”

“Just some weird energy signatures running around, no alerts yet,” the Corporal replied.

“Good,” Jason said, “listen, I need you to send ahead and tell them we’ve got a Code Rainbow coming in?  Mostly non-hostile, but they need to be aware.”

“Not a problem sir, best get on then.  I hope you get everything fixed quickly.”

“You and me both,” Jason replied as he started the van forward.

They drove around the building to a second one with a large garage door that opened as they approached.  Jason drove inside and pulled into a clearly marked spot.  “Let’s go.  They’re going to want to see us on the Aquabase straight away with that call going through.”

 

Jason led them through the large, garage-like structure to a door.  They went through and down a flight of metal stairs and through a door, that Jason used a pass card to open.  Beyond it was a platform, and waiting was a small train.  “Everybody in,” Jason said.

“This is better than the helicopter and sub routine,” Tommy commented as they filed into the train and found seats.

“Yeah,” Jason said, “it was developed after we sealed off the demons.”

“Hey, hold the train,” someone called.

The Rangers turned and Kimberly stifled a gasp, because there was another Tommy Oliver heading their way.  She took a moment to compare him to her Tommy.  He looked harder, somehow, his hair was in actual spikes, and he wore red.  Other than that, he could have been her Tommy.  Behind him was Rocky, who headed straight for the two Adams, green shirt in hand.  “Here,” he said, “I think my Adam should wear this, just so that people can tell you apart.”

“It’s not that hard to tell us apart,” one of the Adams said as he took the shirt.  Rocky and the second Tommy took seats and the train started with a lurch.

“Call it my peace of mind then,” Rocky replied and dipped down to kiss Adam lightly.

“Dammit,” the other Adam said suddenly.

“What?”  Jason asked, “What’s wrong?”

“I was kind of hoping that with me _and_ Adam here,” he paused, “and that is one of the weirdest thoughts I’ve had.  Anyways, I thought that two Adams would help negate the effects of a single Tommy Oliver.”

“Do you really think so?”  The other Adam asked thoughtfully.

“Well, yeah,” Adam said, “two Adams means double the effect, right?”

“Then what are two Tommy Olivers?”  Jason asked.

“Division by zero,” Adam said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is referencing the episode No Clowning Around.
> 
> https://i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/8033280000/h6E462F74/


	9. Not A Cloning Accident

Jason wasn’t entirely sure what to think of the three timeline travelers.  They were an interesting group, and he could see some of his own people in the three of them, more so in Tommy and Adam than in Kimberly, but still, both women clearly had an interest in fashion, so that was something they could possibly bond over.  He had seen the Adams sharing pictures of their children as if they were two old friends, meeting up on some occasion and enjoying a moment to talk.  “Is something on your mind?”

Jason looked up as Tom settled beside him, “Not really,” Jason said, “I was just wondering what was going on with the sensors.”

Tom shook his head, “Probably another ghost.  Ever since they updated them, we’ve been getting ghosts all over the place.”

Jason shrugged, he was not sure he agreed with Tom’s assessment.  “I just got this feeling,” he said, “that we should worry just a bit more about them.”

“Hey!”  Tommy shouted suddenly.

Jason looked up to find Tommy pulling Kimberly away from Kim, who was smirking.  “Excuse me,” Tom said, standing up.

“Seriously, Kimberly,” Tommy said, crowding her into a different seat, “if you two want to go a few rounds, we’ll find a space for it and lay ground rules.  You are not fighting in here if I can help it.”

“You’d break them up?”  Tom asked as he slid into the seat next to Kim.

“Not for a million dollars,” Tommy replied, “I’m not that stupid man.”

“I thought you were a martial artist,” Tom said.

“I am,” Tommy said, “doesn’t mean I’ll get between to ladies in a fight.  It is one of the few school policies I agree with.  You get two boys fighting, all you have to do is break in and distract them.  Two girls will attack you to get to each other if they are mad enough.  It’s school policy to let them fight it out rather than risk injuring someone else.”

Adam snorted as he tugged his green shirt straight, “Sound policy.  At least we’re almost there.”

A few moments later the train slid to a stop and the doors slid open, “We need to go see Mitchell,” Jason said, “and then we’ll see what else can be done.”

When Tom and Rocky fell into his group, Jason raised his eyebrows, “What?”  Tom asked, “I think the look on Mitchell’s face is going to be priceless, I want to see it in person.”

“What he said,” Rocky replied as he slung his arm over Adam’s shoulders.

Jason shook his head, “You are the reason Mitchell has an ulcer,” he told his friends before turning to lead the way down to Mitchell’s office.

There were some double takes as people realized there were three extra Rangers, but no one stopped them.  Jason figured he should be grateful that the Rangers were at the training facility at the moment, between Joel’s love of chaos and Ryan’s secret ability to be an epic troll; there would have been a lot more interest in their group.  As it was, they made it to Mitchell’s office in record time.  Stan, Mitchell’s secretary, took one look at their group and waved them on.  “He’s expecting you,” Stan said.

“How’s his mood?”  Jason asked.

“About normal,” Stan replied.

“Right,” Jason said.  Either Joel and Ryan had been on good behavior, or Mitchell just had not heard about their latest escapades.  He opened the door and waved the rest of the group inside.

“Hello Rangers,” Mitchell was saying as Jason closed the door again, “had a cloning accident?”

“Not this time,” Jason replied, “Will, may I introduce Doctor Tommy Oliver, Kimberly Johansson, and Adam Park.  They’re from an alternate timeline.”

“Time travel?”  Mitchell said.

“Not exactly,” Tommy said, “it’s not so much traveling in time as it is a lateral shift.  Our timelines were the same before a divergent action happened to separate us.  In our case, the divergent action occurred in 1996, during the attack by Master Vile.  In our timeline, Vile was able to activate a device that brought the world back to 1988.  For most people, that included reversing their memories to that time period, although we active rangers remained aware of the device’s effect, and after the timeline was irrevocably changed, we remember the difference.  It’s not the first time we’ve experienced such a shift either.”

“Really?”  Mitchell said.

Tommy shrugged, “It’s happened twice that I know of, the first was a mixed group in 2010 that came back with knowledge of a future apocalypse and how to prevent it, and the second time it was a different group who was sent to the same future, one year later, and then back.  Since we’ve changed the event that led to the apocalypse, it’s no longer an issue.”

“How?”  Jason asked, wondering if he should have been pushing them for this sort of information.

“My youngest daughter,” Kimberly said, “was kidnapped and held by a pseudo-government think tank.  She would have been forced to work for them, culminating in the apocalypse.  When the team first went to that future, they came back with knowledge of how to find her before the project was ever started.  They got her back.  Seeing as Mrs. Oliver and I have different husbands, it’s highly unlikely that you would face the same event.”

“Remind me later and I’ll give you the full details,” Tommy said, “it won’t be the same events, but forewarned is forearmed.”

“Thank you,” Jason said, “and I’ll remind you.”  For a moment, he pictured being able to file an RA form without having to rewrite the thing, but then he remembered that it was Tommy he was talking about.

Mitchell’s intercom buzzed, “Yes,” he said.

“The updates on the radar reports are here, sir,” Stan said.

“Send them in,” Mitchell replied, “I hope you have some plan to deal with this, Lee Scott.”

“We’re working on it,” Jason agreed.  “I was hoping you would authorize the use of discretionary funds to provide accommodations for our guests.”

Mitchell eyed Jason, “That sounds like you’re volunteering to do more paperwork.”

Jason shook his head slightly, “Not volunteering, merely accepting the inevitable.”

The door behind them opened and Jason turned slightly.  A woman came in clutching a stack of files.  Movement in the corner of his eye, made Jason turn further.  Kimberly looked stunned, Tommy expressionless, and Adam was watching the woman walk away from them with a burning intensity not unlike the looks exchanged between Rocky and his Adam.

“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Mitchell said.

“You’re welcome sir,” the woman replied.  Jason turned back to find the Lieutenant heading back towards them, and he hoped she did not think that something was too odd about their group.  The Lieutenant did not stare, at least, and when Jason checked on their guests, all three of them had managed to recover enough to keep their faces neutral.

A shattering thump, as if someone had thrown a glass object, brought Jason’s attention back to Mitchell.  As Jason turned, he saw something glittering hit the ground with the sound of breaking glass, and smoke was beginning to issue from the ground.  “What the…”  Rocky said before he started coughing.

Jason looked at Mitchell, only to see the man’s features begin to melt like hot wax.  As the smoke made him cough, Jason watched as Mitchell became something else, a taller, slender creature with lavender skin and dragonfly wings.

Then the smoke overcame him and the world went black.


	10. There is no Bus

The first thing Tommy was aware of was a full body ache, as if he had been knocked over and landed on his face.  He opened his eyes and stared at dirt for a moment, then rolled over with a groan, “Did somebody catch the number of that bus?”

“I apologize, Doctor Falcon, but there was no bus.”

Tommy shot up and stared.  An all too familiar Badger was sitting by his knees watching him.  “Honored Badger,” he said through gritted teeth.  He had hoped after the _last_ time that he would never see the Wise Badger Spirit again.

The Badger seemed to smile, “Hello Doctor Falcon.  Welcome to the World.”

Tommy closed his eyes for a moment, and then looked around, “What happened?”  He asked.

“You have been sent from your world into mine,” the Badger said, “tell me, Doctor Falcon, have you decided if you are black with white stripes or white with black stripes?”

“I am neither,” Tommy said, “and I am both.  I cannot just be one thing, just as I am not just one Ranger color.  I have changed from what I was in the beginning, and those changes have made me more than I was.”

“Very wise,” the Badger replied.

“Is that a talking badger?”

Tommy turned, and found Jason sitting up and Tom sprawled out just beyond him.  “Greetings, Lord Cougar,” the Badger said.

“Yeah, Jason,” Tommy said, “this is Badger, one of the Grid spirits.”  He sighed, “We met before, it was a few years ago.  I take it we have a quest?”

“It is the Rule,” Badger agreed.  “I will wait while you explain to your companions.”

Tommy sighed and dropped his head for a moment, and then he turned around.  “Are you feeling all right, Jason?”

“I’m fine,” Jason replied.  “You said he was a Grid spirit?”

“Yes,” Tommy said, “meaning we’ve been sent into the Grid for some reason.”

“And you’ve been here before,” Tom said as he resettled himself tailor style.

Tommy rubbed his hand over his face and sighed.  “I have, although it’s not a story I want to tell over and over ok?  Kermit- Adam and I have been here a few times.  Only one of those was by our choice.”

“So how do we get back?”  Tom asked.

“We have a task or a quest that we have to complete,” Tommy said, “if we fail or refuse, we remain in the Grid.  By fail, we have to complete give up and refuse to continue.  Mistakes are allowed, as long as you don’t get up.”

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again?”  Jason said.

“Exactly,” Tommy replied.  “It’s a good way to make sure people don’t come to the Grid for stupid reasons, or on a whim.”

“Well, we aren’t casual visitors,” Jason said, turning to the Badger, “we want to get out of here.  How do we do that?”

“Behind you is a large rock,” the Badger said, “stand upon it, Lord Cougar.”

Tommy noticed Jason’s blank look, “He means you, Jase.” 

Tom stood up and eyed the Badger for a moment, “Lord Cougar?”

“He has held the Gold Zeo Power,” Badger replied, “the title is there whether he uses it or not.”

Tommy shook his head as he climbed on the rock and whistled softly.  The rock was perched on the edge of a cliff over a mountain valley surrounded by white topped peaks.  There was a rugged quality to the mountains, giving them a unique, rugged, natural beauty that nagged Tommy as being something he had seen before.  As Tom and Jason joined him, Tommy snapped his fingers, “Lord of the Rings, of course,” he muttered.

“I’m sorry?”  Jason asked.

“It looks like the scenery from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers,” Tommy replied, “when the beacons from Gondor to Rohan are lit.”

“I would have just said New Zealand,” Tom said, he glanced at Tommy, “but yours works too.”

There was a snuffling noise, and the Badger stepped before them, “Do you see the two towers?”

Tommy refrained from snorting, and scanned up the valley, looking for something manmade amidst the natural beauty.

“There,” Tom pointed, “there’s a white tower.”

“There’s a black one,” Jason said.

The white tower rose from a small forest in the heart of the valley like a shining beacon.  The black tower was located further up the valley, and closer to the slopes of one of the mountains.

“In one of those towers is the Star Crystal,” the Badger said.  “You must make your way to the crystal and retrieve it.  There will be tests along the way that you must pass to reach the tower.  The only clue I may give you is this, my fur is black with white stripes.  That does not mean I am a Spirit of Darkness.  Good luck Lord Cougar, Sensei Falcon, and Doctor Falcon.”  The Badger vanished.

“That was clear as mud,” Jason said.

“He thinks that Rangers ask too many questions,” Tommy replied as he studied the valley.  “It’s going to be a long hike to either tower.”

“Which one do we start with?”  Tom asked.

“The black one,” Jason and Tommy said in unison.

They exchanged glances and Jason gestured for Tommy to go on.  “Badger doesn’t say things without reason.  He pointed out his fur because it was the only thing he could.”

“That’s almost what I was thinking,” Jason said.  “What do you think, Tom?”

Tom glanced at then, “Me?  I agree.  The black tower is a good choice.”  He leaned over to study the area below their rock, “So how do we get down?”

“We could push you,” Tommy offered.

“You first,” Tom said dryly.

Tommy leaned over and studied the drop himself.  Last time, he had jumped off a cliff because he had to.  It was an experience he was somewhat determined to avoid this time.  “It’s an option,” he said aloud, because it _was_ even if he did not like it.  “There is one problem though.”

“What, dying?”  Tom asked.

“No,” Tommy said, looking at Jason, “Cougars can’t fly.”

“Enough,” Jason said, “there are other things to consider, such as, how easy do you think this will be Tommy?”

Tommy considered the question for a long moment.  “Remember the movie Labyrinth?  It looks like a maze, but there are tests and hidden passages, and more frenimies than friends?”

“If I kiss you, will you fall into the Bog of Eternal Stench?”  Tom asked.

“Only if you want to practice your flying,” Tommy retorted.

“Both of you,” Jason said.  “And yes, I’ve seen Labyrinth.  Trini and Zack showed it to the kids last year.  We spent the rest of the summer explaining why you can’t throw babies.”

“That was pretty funny,” Tom said.

Tommy eyed the two of them, and then shook his head, “The Grid Quest is like that,” he said.  “The only limits are the ones you impose on yourself.  So yes, Tom, I could fly if I fell off the cliff.  My spirit is the Falcon after all.  Also, do not worry about time either.  While we will experience a passage of time on our return, it will not be exact.  A year in the Grid tends to average about three days.  There is a side effect though, related to our colors.”

“What about our colors?”  Tom asked warily.

Tommy sighed, “You know how some Rangers have their hair and eyes change colors to match their Ranger Color?  Like how Zhane of KO-35 has such light hair and eyes because he spent so much time in a coma while morphed.  It happens here in the Grid if you’re here too long.”

Tom nodded, “Let’s get through this as fast as possible then.”

Tommy grinned, “It’s not that bad, you can dye the color out, and it’s barely noticeable either way.”  He sobered up, “The other thing we need to remember is trust.  There were three people when we woke up, so that is who is in this part of the Grid.  Anyone else who shows up is a trick.  Some of them might end up being helpful, but most of them won’t.”

“Dangerous?”  Jason asked.

“They can be,” Tommy said, “mostly they’ll try to trick you or lead you astray.”

A falcon screamed.

“What happens if you are led astray?”  Tom asked.

Tommy scanned the skies, “Mutant wolves, high cliffs, raging rivers, tentacle monsters of the friendly and unfriendly varieties, random clowns.  Pretty much pick your nightmare.”  He smiled as he spotted the falcon riding a thermal high above them.

“We should get moving,” Jason said after a long moment.

“Good thing I’ve found our Guide then,” Tommy said, pointing up at the falcon.


	11. Fluffy

Of all the places that made Adam want to swear like a sailor, being back in the Grid definitely topped his list. That he was stuck in the Grid with the  _other_  Adam and his Rocky was the strawberry icing on the strawberry-chocolate cake. The kind that looked like it would taste like heaven, but only ended in swelling, flashing lights, and uncomfortable trips to the hospital where a pimple-faced child prodigy stared at him over a clip board and asked if he'd known he was allergic to strawberries.

"Ninja Frog," a solemn voice said.

Adam turned away from contemplating the path out of the cul de sac they had found themselves in, "Fluffy Badger," he replied with equal solemnity. "Didn't I say last time that I was never coming back?"

"Perhaps that is why you were brought here, because you said you would not," the Badger replied.

"Whatever," Adam replied, he glanced at the unconscious forms of other-Adam and Rocky then turned back to the Badger. It was a mixed bag whether they needed to hear this, the Badger favored riddles and quotes over the real information that they were going to need. Tommy had been known to mutter that Quagmire on the Isle of Illusions was more helpful and Dimitria of Inquiris more direct. Of course, the good doctor also tended to let the Badger speak on his own terms instead of cutting to the chase. "So, what's the daily draw? Damsel in distress, puzzle mania, another labyrinth?"

"This trail ends at the Dawn Tower," the Badger replied, "inside the Tower is the Moon Crystal. You must retrieve the Crystal to return to your world. Sensei Penguin and Crimson Panda will be your companions on the quest."

"Sensei Penguin?"

Other-Adam was awake. Adam glared at him briefly, then turned to the Badger, "Anything else we need to be aware of, Badger?"

The Badger tilted his head for a moment, " _Sticks and stones break only skin, but words are ghosts that haunt me_. You think of him, that you cannot forget what happened, while he will not forgive himself."

Adam sucked in a sharp breath. "That is not a comforting piece of advice, Badger."

"Maybe it is not meant to be," the Badger replied, and vanished.

Adam ran his hands through his hair, and paused to look at other-Adam, "Do I have something on my face?" He asked, afraid that being back in the Grid would negate the dye job that covered his multi-colored hair.

"No," other-Adam said, "who is Sensei Penguin, and did that Badger talk?"

"The Badger talked," Adam said as he sat back down on the ground, "Although he's technically not a Badger, he just likes to look like one. How's your head, first consciousness can be a bit of a head rush."

"Feels like the piñata at the twin's birthday party," other-Adam said, "before the K-Scotts got bored and turned it into a projectile explosive."

"About normal then," Adam said. He eyed Rocky for a long moment, studying the seemingly random twitches in the man's legs.  _He never could keep still, especially when there was something different going on._ "Rocky, are you awake?"

"Do I have to be?" Rocky groaned after a minute. "I feel like the piñata after they blew it up."

"If you have to puke, try not to splash anyone," Adam told him, watching as he rolled over and sat up.

"Where are we?" Other-Adam asked after Rocky was settled in a seated position.

"We're in the Morphing Grid," Adam replied grimly. "Something happened in Mitchell's office and we got pushed here. I do not know about anyone else, but I think Jason, Tommy, your Tom, Kim, Kimberly and Tanya all ended up in the Grid. I am not sure about Tanya, if she did not hold the Power here, she might not be allowed, but given that she has in another universe, she might be let in because of that. They aren't here though, and we shouldn't trust it if we do see them."

"Why not?" Rocky asked.

"Because the Grid is not solid good or solid evil, it's a gradient. On one end is pure Light, and is where those Rangers who passed before us may be found and the other is pure Darkness, where those villains who used the Grid and passed on lurk. In between are spirits, not unlike the Badger, some are wise and helpful, others are cunning tricksters, and they can look like anyone or anything they choose."

"But why are they there?" Other-Adam said.

"Rangers, and others, who come to the Grid have to prove themselves worthy, even in a case like ours, where we didn't intend to end up here. We have a quest to achieve if we want to leave the Grid, and the Spirits are set to test us to prove us worthy. Our test is to get to the end of the trail, and to find the Dawn Tower and the Moon Crystal." Adam stood back up, "We need to start moving. Time runs different here, but that does not mean that people will not notice we have left. It runs about three days on Earth to a year here, but that can fluctuate."

Other-Adam and Rocky also stood up, brushing off their jeans and exchanging glances. Other-Adam in particular was glancing between Rocky and Adam as if he was trying to figure something out about Adam that he was not sure that he liked. "By the way, what did Badger mean about Sensei Penguin and Crimson Panda?" Other-Adam said.

"It's one of your animal spirits," Adam said, "probably Ninjetti based as opposed to Ninja, since I'm Ninja Frog and all. You're the Penguin; by the way, he's the Panda."

"How do you know that?" Rocky asked.

"I had a lot of time to ask questions last time I was stuck in the Grid," Adam said as he started down the trail. "Why do you think I never admitted to familiarity with the Ninjetti? Tommy has it easy; he is just a Falcon, which is funny considering that he has so many Ranger colors. I get to have two animal spirits, and if what RJ was trying to tell me was true, I might have a third, for Pai Zhuq. I would rather just be the Frog when it is all said and done. They have knees. As for knowing that Rocky is a Panda, jeez, even before that cartoon came out, I knew that." Maybe it was just remembering the last time, but Adam spun, drew himself up, looked Rocky in the eye as the other man stopped short and said in his worst Hagrid impression, "Ye're a Great Panda, Rocky."


	12. Noble, Lady, Coach

Tanya Coulson had worked at Lightspeed for nearly a decade, and while she had heard stories about how crazy Zordon’s Rangers were, waking up in a cave after Colonel Mitchell attacked them with smoke filled glass orbs was beyond any of her expectations.  It was even more unusual than when her wedding had been crashed by monsters back in 2002. 

Still, Tanya figured there was only so much she could lying on the cave’s floor, and there was no guarantee she wasn’t lying in guano or something, so she picked herself up and looked around.  Sprawled on the cave floor, clearly unconscious, were the two brunets, one of which she knew was Mrs. Oliver but the other she didn’t know.  Maybe Mrs. O had a twin sister?

Tanya looked around, and realized that she could actually see the cave around her but she couldn’t find a source of light.

“Be at peace, Noble Cougar.”

Tanya spun with a small scream.  Standing behind her was a black and white animal that watched her with knowing eyes, “Who,” Tanya said, looking to find the source of the voice.

“Me.”

Tanya stared at the animal, “What’s going on?”  She asked, and winced as her voice trembled in fear.

“I am a spirit of the Grid, Noble Lioness.  You may call me Badger,” the Badger sat back and studied her, “You are not a Power Ranger.”

“No, I’m not,” Tanya replied.

“You have that potential, Noble Lioness.”  Badger said with a nod.

A groan interrupted the Badger and Tanya turned to see that one of the twins was waking up, “Did I fall off the balance beam again?”  She asked.

“No,” Tanya said, uncertainly.

“Tanya?  What happened, I had the weirdest dream,” the woman sat up, staring at Tanya.  She frowned and glanced beyond Tanya for a moment, “Not a dream?”

“Jury’s still out,” Tanya managed.  “How do you know my name?”

“Oh,” the woman stood up, “I’m Kimberly Johanason.  I’m from an alternate dimension from the one you know.  In my dimension, we’re friends.”  She offered her hand with a smile, “Me and some friends kind of got shoved into your universe.”

“Tanya Coulson,” Tanya replied and shook her hand.

“Coulson?”  Kimberly repeated, looking puzzled, “Not Sloan?”

“Sloan’s my maiden name,” Tanya said with a little smile, “I’ve been married for a while now.”

“Huh,” Kimberly said, she looked over at the Badger, “You’re Tommy’s friend the Wise Badger, aren’t you?”

“I’m not sure I’d say friend,” the Badger replied, “but I am acquainted with the Doctor Falcon and Sensei Frog, Lady Crane.  Coach Gazelle, there is no need to pretend to be unconscious.  You are in the Grid.”

“I’m not even going to ask,” the other Kimberly, Mrs. Oliver, said.  Tanya watched as she picked herself up, “How did we get here anyways?”

“You were sent,” the Badger replied.

“How do we get out of here?”  Tanya asked, “This cave is a bit creepy.”

“You will be released momentarily,” the Badger replied.  “To leave the Grid, however, you must complete a quest.  Your quest will be to journey to a tower and retrieve the Sun Crystal.  Once you hold the Crystal, you will return to your world.  There will be tests between here and the tower that you must pass.  You have a question, Noble Lioness?”

“Why do you call me that?”  Tanya asked.

“Because your spirit is that of a Lioness, just as your companions are the Gazelle and the Crane,” the Badger said.  “I can give you only one piece of advice before I take my leave.  You must go back to go forward and go down to go up.”  The cave faded away and the three women stood in the heart of a desert.  “Be strong, Lady Rangers.”

With that, the Badger vanished.

“Ok, seriously?”  Tanya said, turning to the other two, “What is going on?”

“This is the Grid,” one of the women said, Tanya was almost certain it was Johanason.  “Power Rangers get their power through the Grid, it shapes the power and makes it manageable.”

“But I’m not a Ranger,” Tanya protested.

“You could be,” Johanason replied, “in my dimension, you _are_ a yellow ranger.  Everyone is connected to the Power of the Grid, Rangers, or potential Rangers, have an even stronger connection.”  She smiled a little and reached out to put her hand on Tanya’s shoulder, “All this means is that you have the moral compass, integrity, mind set, courage, and instinct to be a Ranger, even if you never get your hands on a morpher.”

“She’s right,” Oliver added, “it also means you have the flexibility of _mind_ to handle the weirdness of being a Ranger.  Now, we should start moving.  I don’t know about you two, but I have kids at home who should not be left on their own for too long.”

Tanya scanned the desert, noting that Oliver and Johanason did the same.  “There,” Oliver said, pointing, “there’s something, I think it’s a tower.”

“I think you’re right,” Tanya agreed after a moment.

“Let’s go,” Johanason said and started off in the direction Oliver indicated.

As she followed behind, Tanya decided that it was her imagination that Johanason was quoting that hyena from the Lion King.


	13. Test of Trust 1

Tommy watched the falcon as it flew further down the cliff and disappeared, and then he jumped off the rock and followed.

“Where are you going, Doc?”  Jason asked.

“After Falcon,” Tommy replied.

“Why?”  Tom demanded.

“Because we need a guide and Falcon is the best one for it,” Tommy said.  The cliff dropped away before him, leaving a winding path down to the ground.  Tommy smiled and started down the path.

“How do you know that?”  Tom asked, following on Tommy’s heels.

“Hey!”  Jason shouted.  Tommy turned to look at Jason, noting his defensive stance, the way his elbows were close to his body, and his mulish expression.  “What falcon?”

“That one,” Tom pointed.

“Yeah, he can’t see it,” Tommy said.  Seeing Tom’s confusion, he sighed, “Jason doesn’t trust me.  Not that I’m surprised, given how many times I’ve been cloned and or turned evil.  Seeing Falcon is about trust, if you trust me, you can see my other spirit.  If you don’t trust me, you can’t see him.”  He turned and continued making his way down the path, hoping it widened a bit more when they got further down.

After a moment, there was a scrabbling sound and Jason appeared behind Tom.

“So, is this some kind of test?”  Jason asked.

“Of course it is,” Tommy replied, “Did you think they were going to let us just waltz in there or something?”

They made their way down the cliff in silence after that.  Tommy was pleased to note that the path did widen as they went, but it was a long way to the bottom.  He was about to suggest they take a quick break when Tom yelped, “Look out!”

Tommy spun, scanning the path behind them and the sky for danger.  “What?”  He asked, looking back at Tom.

“Tommy?”  Tom asked.  He reached out and pressed his hand on something Tommy couldn’t see.

“I’m right here,” Tommy said, reaching out.  His fingers touched a smooth surface he couldn’t see.  “Can you hear me?”

“Where did he go?”  Jason asked.

“I don’t know,” Tom replied, “he just walked through the rock.”  He leaned forward, clearly putting his weight on his palm.  “It looks solid to me.”

Tommy growled under his breath and steppe away from the wall.  Whatever was separating them was keeping Tom and Jason from seeing or hearing him, obviously.  As Tom pulled his hand back, a flash of silver caught Tommy’s eye.  “Of course,” he said.  Jason and Tom were wearing communicators.

Tommy twisted his wrist, pulling up his zeonizers, and beeped Jason’s communicator.  “This is Jason,” Jason said.

“Jason, this is Doctor Oliver,” Tommy said trying not to sigh again.

“Tommy, where are you Doc?”  Jason said, glancing over at Tom.

“Right in front of you,” Tommy said.  “I can see and hear you guys clearly.  Whatever’s going on, we’re still in one piece.  We just have…”

“Doc?”  Jason asked.

Tommy swallowed as he watched the Leegran stalk down the path.  Standing at about five feet at the shoulder, the Leegran looked like a large tiger with slightly oversized canines, except it was pure white with large, leathery wings.  She had a green jewel in the form of a star imbedded in her chest.

“Jason, listen to me very carefully,” Tommy said.  “You’ve got company calling.  She’s a Leegran.  They were one of the first races outside of Eltare to have Rangers, and their race has died out since then.  You must treat her very carefully.  If you treat her respectfully, without acting like prey or predator, she can help us figure out how to get out of this.  If you don’t, the best we can hope for is that she’ll leave.  You have to trust me, okay.  I know you can do this right.”

Jason glanced over his shoulder and swallowed, “That’s a big…”

“Yeah,” Tommy cut him off, “but you’re Jason Lee Scott, Elder Red Ranger of Earth.  You fought Goldar one on one and won.  You lead the team that stopped two of the galaxy’s biggest threats in their tracks.  You survived Maligore.  You can handle a kitty cat.”

“Right,” Jason muttered, then turned as the Leegran came to a halt.

The Leegran looked around Jason for a moment, green eyes focusing unerringly on Tommy.  “Oh, I’m going to pay for that,” Tommy muttered as he watched.

“Greetings,” Jason said.  “I am Jason.”

“Lee Scott,” the Leegran purred.  “I heard your friend.  I am Kali.”

“This is Tommy Oliver of Earth,” Jason said, “Green, White, and Red Ranger, Supervisory Green and White Ranger.”

“Supervisory?”  Kali asked.

“It’s an Earth rank,” Jason replied.  “Since we had Tommy followed by a Black Ranger turned Green, and we didn’t have a pure White Ranger for several teams, we named Tommy as Supervisory.  Joel and Alyssa stand as Senior for their respective colors, but as Tommy is not only a peer and teammate to me and the other Elders, but also a well-known and respected Ranger in his own right, we wanted to acknowledge that.  In our hierarchy, he has the same rank as a Senior Ranger, but his duties and responsibilities are different.  We have a third, another Tommy Oliver from a different universe.  He says this rock wall is an illusion and he is on the other side, watching us.”

“He says,” Kali asked.

Jason touched his communicator, “This communicator allowed us to speak with him before you arrived.”

“I see,” Kali said.  “You do not trust him.”

Jason winced, “Not really, Lady.”  He glanced over at Tom, “We’ve had experience with enemies using Tom’s seeming to attempt to bring us down from within.  That another Tommy Oliver has arrived, even with two he calls teammates, and then we are brought to the Grid.  It’s suspicious.”

“Oh gee, thanks,” Tommy said.  “Nice to know where you stand, Jace.”  He picked a rocky outcropping and sat down.

“I trust him,” Tom said, “I mean, I trust he’s not evil, and all he wants is to go home.  I’m just not a fan of how he looked at Kim.”

“Hey!”  Tommy jumped up, “I’m not going to steal your wife, dummy!”

Kali nodded, “This test is for you, Jason Lee Scott, and for the Doctor Falcon.”  Her wing stretched out towards the cliff side and a cave swirled into view.  A second opening appeared on Tommy’s side.  “You will enter the cave and work together to reach the other entrance.”

“What about me?”  Tom asked.

“You will be allowed to follow this path and Falcon.  It will bring you to the cave entrance.  As long as you do not stray from the path, you will meet your fellow travelers there,” Kali said.

“All right,” Tom said quietly.

“In return for this chance, I ask a single favor,” Kali said.

“If it is in my power,” Jason said.

“Tell the Doctor Falcon that Kami is pleased with his efforts.  Should your path take longer than she has seen, she will find him again.”

Tommy sighed, remembering the last Leegran he’d met, another pure white Lady Ranger; Kami had been a Purple Ranger in life.  Now a Grid Spirit, she had provided one of the keys to the quest he and Adam had completed.  Kami had told him stories of the Leegran, legends and myths that had been lost after their race had returned to the Grid.  In return for Kami’s aid, Tommy had typed up those myths and legends, that they wouldn’t be lost again.  After losing Sam, he’d found healing in telling those very old stories.

“Thank you,” Jason said, “I will make sure Tommy knows.”

“That is all I can ask, Lord Cougar,” Kali said as she backed up the path.  “May the winds flow in your favor.”

“May the Power keep you strong,” Tommy called.

Kali leapt off the path, wings spreading outward as she swooped into the air.  Tommy watched as she vanished into the clear blue sky.  Then he turned to the tunnel.  “I never wanted to be Indiana Jones,” he muttered and stepped into the shadows.


	14. Sticks and Stones Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> To escape the Grid, Adam must face and accept the truth behind his relationship with Rocky and why things ended the way they did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poem by Byrne, Brendan (1994)
> 
>  
> 
> This chapter kind of grew beyond what I expected, which is why I did what I did. There are memories displayed here that involve nasty, homophobic slurs, partially dressed young men making out, and there's a short recap of Adam's life. Adam here is the Adam from the original verse, other-Adam is from the universe they're currently in. These memories belong to Adam, not other-Adam.
> 
> Remember other-Adam is happily settled with Rocky and Aisha in a "not a threesome" where in Aisha is the mother of their children and a big part of their lives.
> 
> Adam is married to Tanya, three kids and an Antonio.
> 
> The future Adam memories will also involve homophobic slurs, but less partially dressed young men making out sadly, so be warned for that.
> 
> Somehow, the DeSantos as a group all ended up with R names and I didn't realize it until I needed a name for another sibling and went looking. (Okay, Rick's short for Enrique but he's called Rick by everybody and their dog so the DeSantos of Rocky's generation all have R names.)

While Adam was very careful about judging their progress from the spot where they’d awoken in the Grid and where they were now, his companions clearly hadn’t learned a similar lesson.  “This is really easy,” Rocky said.

“Please don’t,” Adam said as they wound through the narrow canyon.

“But it is,” Rocky said.

The canyon curved and Adam followed, stopping at what was ahead of them.  “You spoke to soon,” he growled, “really?  Don’t you know that you only jinx it when you say shit like that?  Especially in a place like the Grid.”

There was a warning sign at least, not that Adam trusted it to tell them the truth.

 _“Sticks and stones may break my bones,_  
But words can also hurt me.  
Sticks and stones break only skin,  
While words are ghosts that haunt me.  
  
Slant and curved the words-swords fall  
To pierce and stick inside me,   
bats and bricks may ache through bones,   
But words can mortify me.  
  
Pain from words has left its scar  
On mind and heart that's tender.  
Cuts and bruises now have healed,  
It's words that I remember.”

Adam glanced at Other-Adam, and shook his head, “It’s not going to be pretty.”

“What’s not?”  Rocky asked.

“Whatever’s waiting beyond that sign,” Adam said.  “When you’re tested by the Grid, it draws from your experiences, sometimes you relive something that’s already happened, sometimes it extrapolates from your memories to create a new scenario.  You just have to figure it out and make it through to the other side.”

“You’re just a bright ray of sunshine, aren’t you?”  Rocky asked, amused.

Adam shook his head slightly, “I spent several _years_ in the Grid in my own time, learning how to navigate it.  It wasn’t my idea to be here, but I survived, and so did Tommy.”

“What happened?”  Other-Adam asked.

“The Zeo Crystal was damaged when the Power Chamber blew,” Adam said, “we didn’t know, not until Tommy and I was in the same twenty feet.  Tanya was at UCLA studying to be a radio personality, so we hadn’t seen each other in a month.  Kat was living in Australia, it was right after her fiancé died and she was grieving.  Rocky lives on another planet, so me and Tommy meeting up when our time off coincided was the first time any of us had been that close together.  The damage to the Crystal pulled us into the Grid and we were tasked with tracking down the remaining four sub-crystals.  We got caught in a few of the visions, in particular one where Tommy actually finished his degrees.  When we got out, we had the new sub-crystals to stabilize the Zeo Crystal, and Tommy tested out of some of his classes based on his Grid experiences.  He was a Doctor of Paleontology in 2005 because of the Grid.”  Adam crossed his arms and glared at the warning sign, “It’s what prompted me to stop being a stunt double and open the dojo, but that’s not the point here.  Our path leads through this whatever it is and we need to move.”

He stalked forward, “Wait,” other-Adam said, “What can we expect here?”

Adam shrugged, “Who knows.  It won’t be pretty, it will probably be painful and mildly humiliating, and talking about it isn’t going to get us through it any faster.”  He passed the sign, heard a sigh behind him, and then he followed the path around an outcropping of rock and hesitated.

A sheet of green crystal was set in the outcropping, an odd addition to the natural surroundings.  Adam reached out and touched it.

_Rocky and his brother Rick were at the local In and Out sharing a plate of fries.  Rocky was laughing, “It’s good to see you, big brother,” he said._

_“You too,” Rick said, “I never did understand why you wanted to hang out with that fag anyways.”_

_Rocky shrugged as he toyed with the straw in his drink.  “At the time, it was something to do.”_

_Adam spotted himself standing close to the counter, receipt clenched in his hand.  Neither of the DeSantos spotted him as he grabbed his order and all but ran from the restaurant._

Adam pulled his hand back, frowning.

“What?”  Rocky asked.

“They’re a memory,” Adam said, “at least, that was a memory.”  He looked at Rocky and other-Adam, “Did you see it?”

Rocky nodded, “I remember that conversation.  Adam was kissed by that guy, Turner?”

“Taylor,” other-Adam muttered.

“Right, Tanner,” Rocky said, “and Rick saw them.  He asked me that and I decked him in the middle of the restaurant.  We only talk at Christmas now, and that’s only if Mom makes him talk to me.”

Adam shook his head, “That year after the time change, Rocky and I were slowly falling apart and desperate to hide it.  Tommy saw it the most, and Billy probably, but Kat didn’t know until the end and Tanya…”   he hesitated, “I didn’t tell Tanya until after Rocky left.  If Rocky talked to her before that, I don’t know and Tanya won’t talk to anyone about what comes up in her little chats.  She won’t even break confidence on the stand.”  He grinned a little, “That judge was a little bit upset.”

“Who is Tanya?”  Rocky asked.

Adam blinked and glanced at other-Adam, “Tanya…”  Adam hesitated, “after the timeline was straightened out, Aisha was living in Africa.  Tanya came from Africa in her place and became the Yellow Zeo Ranger after Billy decided to step down and apprentice to Zordon in a Ranger Tech position.  With Aisha gone, Rocky and I self-destructed in slow motion.  Tanya needed help with martial arts and dealing with integrating nearly ten years of memories lived with her experience of going from eight to seventeen in about ten minutes.  Tommy and I helped Tanya adjust and settle into herself and we became friends.  About three quarters of the way through that year, I realized Rocky and I would be lucky to salvage a friendship, and probably never make it to anything more, that made it easier for me to accept what Tanya was trying to offer, both friendship and something more.  We got married a few years back so that we could officially adopt Antonio, but we had three children before that.”

Adam cleared his throat and started forward, “We need to keep moving.  I’m sure you don’t need my life story.”

“Adam,” Rocky grabbed his arm, “What happened?”

Adam yanked his arm free, anger surging in him at the familiar face.  “Rocky decided that fighting for us wasn’t worth the cost and he took the coward’s route out of it instead of telling me and I gave as good as I got.”  He stalked further down the path, rounding a curve and finding a fork in the path, each marked by a green panel.  Adam considered the fork, and the panels.

 _You cannot forget and he cannot forgive._   That’s what the Badger had said.

 _Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can also hurt me,_   that poem, repeated to him twice.

Adam reached over and pressed his hand against the panel, ignoring the other two as they came up behind him.

_Rocky was sprawled on Adam’s bed, shirt off and jeans unbuttoned.  He was sixteen or seventeen, lacking the last Ranger scar he’d ever gotten.  There was a toy frog on the nightstand with black and green ribbons around its neck and a half-eaten box of chocolates.  Adam himself was half-lying on him, also shirtless, also about sixteen, sucking a hickey on his shoulder slowly and lazily.  “I hope no one notices that,”  Rocky murmured._

_“No one will know who gave it to you,” Adam said, stealing a quick kiss._

_“I have to go to church tomorrow for youth group.  You know that my church says homosexuals deserve to burn in Hell.”  Rocky said as he toyed with Adam’s waistband._

Adam frowned, clenching his fist.  He remembered that conversation, he’d suggested that they ask Kat for some make-up tips if it bothered him that much.

  _Adam looked up with a lazy smile, “Then stop going.  It’s not real anyways.”_

Adam pulled back, “That didn’t happen.”

“What do you mean?”  Rocky asked harshly.

“I told him we could go to Kat for make-up tricks if it bothered him that much.  I teased him about being a girl if he did.  I told him he could give me one to match, so that even if nobody else knew, we’d know we had them.”  Adam rubbed the back of his neck.  “The next day, I heard Rick call me a fag.  It was the last time we had a lazy afternoon like that.”

“You said the Grid used memories,” other-Adam said, “that it created things based on memories as well as playing them directly.  Maybe that’s what that was, it was based on your memory.”

Adam shook his head slightly, “I would never say that though.  Rocky’s religion… why would I?”

“You didn’t,” Rocky said, touching Adam’s arm.  “You didn’t say that.  The Grid’s trying to fuck with your mind.”

Adam jerked away from Rocky and hurried to the second panel.

_Rocky was pacing around Adam’s room, tense and unhappy.  He was toying with a stuffed frog, absently squeezing it to make the felt tongue roll in and out of its mouth.  “I’m telling you Adam, something’s different.  It’s like they’re not the same anymore.  I keep expecting things and then realize that it’s from the other timeline.”_

_“You aren’t the only one,” Adam said, sticking his head out of his closet.  “I keep expecting Mom to ask about Aisha, then remember that Mom doesn’t actually know her.”_

_“Are you about done?”  Rocky asked._

_“I have, like, three green shirts in this closet somewhere and I need to find them.  Why couldn’t we have gotten a two week warning on changing colors so I could have been prepared?”  Adam vanished back into his closet, “So what are your parents doing anyways?”_

_“We told our parents we were doing a sleep over, remember?”  Rocky said._

_Adam starts to climb his dresser to get a better look at a box on the closet’s top self.  “Yeah,” Adam said, “I couldn’t cover you because we were visiting Nana.  Didn’t you say you were at Tommy’s house?”_

Adam was still grateful he’d missed that mission.  As funny as the pictures of Rocky with squirrel ears and a tail turned out, he wasn’t sure he could have handled it as well as Rocky and Tommy did.

_“I did.  Thankfully, I was home before noon so I don’t think they suspected anything.”  Rocky pointed the frog at the closet, “At least, I didn’t until they hauled me to the hospital and made me take a drug test.”_

_Adam grunted, “Something must have happened that we don’t know about.  I’m sure…” there was a crash followed by several soft plops.  “Really?  Once wasn’t enough?”_

Adam could see himself half off the dresser covered in stuffed frogs, but what surprised him was Rocky’s expression, going from tense and unhappy, to concerned, to hurt before smoothing out into a huge grin.  Adam pulled his hand from the rock.

“What was that?”  Rocky asked.

Adam swallowed, “Rocky and I were… making out with a happy ending and I needed a clean shirt after he thought mine was a towel.  I couldn’t find any clean green shirts so I went looking in my closet.  He commented on how lucky he was blue jeans went with everything now because his mom hated buying clothes.  I asked him how things were going and he started telling me that.  I was trying to think of something that could have made his parents think he was doing drugs when I triggered a booby trap in my closet.”

“You sounded like you weren’t paying attention,” Rocky said.

“I was,” Adam replied, “It’s just that we weren’t thinking.  I mean, Rocky’s blue, his jeans worked for him, but I hadn’t been shopping for useful things like appropriately colored underwear, and I hadn’t been wearing a shirt for several hours.”

“Color withdrawal?”  Rocky asked.

“You know how scatterbrained I get,” other-Adam said.  “What was going on with Rocky’s parents anyways?  I know Rosa, Rick, and Raul all thought we were a gang, but Claudia and Alex were always reasonable.”

“Tanya thinks Aisha was the modifier,” Adam said, studying the paths again.  “That having the three of us together made us less likely to get in trouble.  The DeSantos respected Aisha and thought she’d keep Rocky and I on the straight and narrow.”

Rocky snorted, “I don’t know about straight.”

“I think what we’re doing is seeing a truth and a lie.  The truth will show us the path we need to take, but the lie will take us on a false path.  I don’t know if we’ll see anyone else’s memories but mine and there may be more to this, given what Badger said.”  Adam sighed.

“What part?”  Other-Adam asked.

“I can’t forget, and Rocky can’t forgive,” Adam replied.  “If all we’re going to see are the truths and lies of our Zeo year then it’s not going to be pretty.  I know Rocky, there’s one thing he would never forgive himself for doing.”  He glanced at Rocky, “I think I know what he meant about what I can’t forget too.  There are two, three things that happened that could be considered strong candidates.”

“What did you do?”  Rocky asked.

“I didn’t _do_ anything,” Adam replied as he stepped onto his chosen path.  “Rocky was the one who did thing.  I was the one who said things.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realized as I wrapped this up that basically they were doing 'two truths and a lie', so the other chapters feature these three will have a similar format. Although I might not always indicate which one is the lie in the future.


	15. I Wish

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kim Johansson, Kim Oliver, and Tanya Sloan on their way to the tower have an interesting adventure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tommy-Squared was so easy to write. Adam-squared was so easily horrible. Kim-squared was NOT easy. I just had this idea that Kim-squared didn't get along. I would also like to point back about two chapters and Tommy's comments on the Grid and what resided within.

Tanya had thought that getting caught up in an adventure with the Power Rangers would be scary, exciting, painful, and something she’d never really regret.  That was before she met Kimberly Johansson and then pulled into some weird place with Mrs. Oliver and Mrs. Johansson.  No, apparently Power Ranger adventures were boring, uneventful, frustrating, regretful, hot, and tiring.

They had been hiking across the desert for a while, and while patches of desert planets, including way too many cacti to be healthy, occasionally broke the sand it was mostly sand, sand, and the weird glanced Mrs. Oliver and Mrs. Johansson exchanged when they thought the other woman wasn’t looking.

“So,” Mrs. Johansson said finally, “Tommy?”

“What about him?”  Mrs. Oliver asked as they started to climb another dune.

“I just don’t understand why you married him,” Mrs. Johansson said, “I mean, he’s good kisser, but his issues have issues.”

“Well, I understand why he didn’t marry you,” Mrs. Oliver muttered quietly when she stopped to look at Tanya.  “You okay?”

Tanya tried to grin, “I was planning on hitting the gym after work today.  Now I don’t have to.”

“You let us know if you need a break,” Mrs. Oliver said, “things are different here in the Grid.”

“I will,” Tanya said.

“As for Tommy and I,” Mrs. Oliver continued, turning back to Mrs. Johansson, “maybe he does have issues from what Rita did to him, and maybe losing his power the way did was exceptionally traumatizing, but did you ever think that maybe loosing you is what made him have issues afterwards?  My Tom’s only had three colors and four teams.  Your Tommy’s had four colors and _six teams._ ”

“It was just a high school romance,” Mrs. Johansson said, “it just felt like more because we were fighting.  It wasn’t like either of us was planning for forever back then.  It was just a high school thing.”

“Didn’t sound like it from Tommy’s point of view,” Mrs. Oliver said.  “But then, you grew up after the Orb changed the timeline, right?  You weren’t a… a Zeo Ranger with Adam and Tommy?”

“No, I wasn’t a Zeo,” Mrs. Johansson said, “I don’t see what the difference is though.  It was just a high school romance.”

“It explains more than it doesn’t,” Mrs. Oliver said.

“What does that even _mean?”_   Mrs. Johansson demanded, turning to glare at Ms. Oliver, “You keep saying that like you’ve solved some great mystery.”

“Maybe I have,” Mrs. Oliver replied, “maybe I’m starting to understand why you aren’t me.”

Tanya stared at the two of them, wondering if she should try to intervene before things got physical.  She wasn’t sure she should, because she had no clue what they were arguing about really, but they did need to get that crystal from the tower to get back home and she wanted to get the whole thing done for.

Tanya sighed, “Excuse me,” she said.

Suddenly, something slammed into her from behind and Tanya stumbled forward, but instead of experiencing the ground rushing towards her as it did in a fall, the ground was becoming more distant as bands of pressure encircled her arms.  Tanya screamed.

She caught a glimpse of her companions’ matching look of horror before whatever was carrying her shot passed them.  For a second, she thought she heard someone mutter “ _you had to eat that second brownie, didn’t you?”_   However, her attention was more focused on trying to twist her way out of the creature’s grip.  Looking back, Tanya saw Mrs. Oliver and Mrs. Johansson racing after her, but then she twisted back to see where she was going.

Like magic, a gorge appeared before them and the creature swept over it, circled back and then dove down one of the steep, grey sides, and Tanya screamed and shut her eyes tightly.  The creature slowed to a stop abruptly, jarring Tanya hard enough that she knew she’d be feeling the bruises for ages, and then the creature released her.  Tanya screamed again as she fell, only to have her fall ended by what felt like a bush. 

Tanya opened her eyes and found herself lying in a giant bird’s nest.  She twisted to look above her, but the creature was gone.  Tanya forced her unsteady legs to hold her as she headed for the side of the nest, only to find that there was a huge drop on that side.  Tanya stumbled back, hesitant to check the other side.

“Tanya!”  Someone screamed.

Tanya looked up to see Mrs. Oliver and Mrs. Johansson looking down at her.  “Are you all right?”

“I’m okay,” Tanya replied with a wave, and then hissed as her bruised muscles protested.  “Mostly okay, I’m probably bruised from where that thing grabbed me.”

“Hold on, we’ll figure out how to get you up,” one of the two called to her.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere,” Tanya said.  She carefully settled down in the nest, grateful that the cliff provided her with shade from the desert sun, and the nest was, if not soft, at least comfortable enough for her to rest from the hike they’d undergone.

Tanya thought might have even dozed off a bit before one of the women shouted, “It’s not like we can just say ‘I wish for a ladder’ and have a ladder appear!”

There was a sharp exclamation and Tanya looked up to see someone looking back at her, “Watch out,” she called, “we’ve got a ladder.”

Tanya scrambled up and backed away, watching as a wood and rope ladder unfurled.  “Is it stable?”  She called up.

“It’s stable,” the two called back in unison.

Tanya sighed and began to climb up, trying not to whimper as the moves jarred her sore arms.  Finally, she reached the top and Mrs. Oliver and Mrs. Johansson pulled her onto the cliff.  “Sorry about that,” Mrs. Oliver said.

“Did you really say ‘I wish for a ladder’ and got one?”  Tanya asked as she shook out her shoulders.

“Yes?”  Mrs. Johansson said sheepishly.

“In that case, I wish for a vehicle to help carry us closer to the tower,” Tanya said loudly.

An engine roared and a large yellow van with a chrome guard on the front pulled up in front of them, the doors flying open.

“Tanya,” Mrs. Johansson said slowly, “You never held the Turbo powers did you?”

“I don’t even know what they are,” Tanya said.  “Why?”

“The Turbo powers were a transition power held by the Zeo Rangers.  There was something about the Zeo Crystal, I didn’t really understand it, but they transitioned to the Turbo powers, our Rocky retired because of a back injury and a new Blue named Justin joined the team.  This is the Dune Star Turbo Zord, the Zord that Tanya in our world used.”  Mrs. Johansson said.

“Dune Star huh,” Tanya said, “let’s get in and get going.  I may be in shape, but I can’t hike twenty miles with no breaks or water.”

The three women climbed into the Zord, with Tanya behind the wheel, they headed for the Tower.


End file.
